Is Costa Rica saving the best for last? Yesterday, the Nicaraguan congress approved CAFTA with a vote of 49-37. Meanwhile, Pacheco has yet to send the pact for discussion, and will possibly send it sometime after October 20th, when he returns from Spain.

The pact will take effect on January 1, 2006 among the countries who have ratified it: the U.S., Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador y Dominican Republic.

The Coral Princess Halmilton was the first of 147 ships that will arrive in Limon this season. Each ship normally has between 1500 and 2000 passengers.

Max Vilchez is accusing a municipal worker in Golfito of asking for a $15,000 bribe in exchange for approval of a use permit for a beach front property in Playa Zancudo. The mayor, Aida Soto has asked the city council to open an investigation into the matter, but since they did not she has brought the allegations to the Attorney General.

According to Vilchez, a city employee named Ramirez asked for “15 thousand” to process the documents related to the permit. Vilchez understood that 5000 colones was for the permit process and 10 thousand was for a brother and a friend of the functionary, for getting photocopies and other papers. When the envelope was passed, the city employee called Vilchez back to clarify that $15,000 was needed, not 15,000 colones. This amount was to be split among members of the city’s Maritime Zone Commission.

The mayor stated that “this is the first time I have encountered this sort of accusation, but rumor has it that this has been going on for a long time.” She arrived in March after the former mayor Mauricio Alvarado was suspended.

The government and the water workers had a 2 hour meeting yesterday, but according to the union leader Walter Navarro the strike is still on. Users yesterday were able to pay their bills, even though water offices were empty of workers.

The Minister of Labor, Fernando Trejos, stated that the government had offered a 7.2 % increase for the water workers in the lower pay scales, approximately 60% of the 2900 water workers. This measure would also benefit 15,000 other government workers, many of whom are in labor unions.

Workers had asked for an 18% hike and the water worker’s reaction to the government offer was unknown late yesterday. Officials have stated that striking workers will be docked pay for every day they strike.

A new idea didn’t work out so well for the new Immigration Director Johnny Marín. Yesterday, a new system was implemented where officials only take care of 500 passport requests per day. The idea is that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 500 people will get appointments to request their passport, which will be given to them 2 days later. On Thursdays and Fridays people who request appointments via Internet will be attended to.

More than 1500 people were unaware of the new procedure and were left outside. Many had been traveling since before dawn and citizens said that at 5 am there was already a huge line outside. The situation got out of contol and bureaucrats called in the riot police to control the crowd. Weapons or tear gas was not implemented.

Marín stated that the “changes were announced 2 months ago. Immigration can’t attend more than 500 people per day. I don’t know what the obsession with this document is.”

(Note to Director of Immigration: This document is required for international travel, most countries require that people present their passport upon entry - including Costa Rica! )